by Fr. Thomas Brouillette
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” Luke 24:5-7
Throughout the week we call ‘Holy,’ we celebrated the sacred liturgies and entered into the climax of the Sacred Triduum, in the Easter Vigil of the Resurrection. In Holy Week, we did not simply reenact events that took place in history. Precisely because these faith-anchoring events are historical, they cannot be repeated or reenacted. The Church’s long tradition insists that what happened once in history passes over into the mystery of the assembly’s liturgical, sacramental celebration. We do not celebrate history only, the liturgies remind us, but do not take us back to the upper room, or to the Garden of Gethsemane or to the Golgotha. Their purpose is not to retrace, nor catch sight of Him as did Mary Magdalen, by imagining the tomb with the stone rolled back—even as helpful as this can be to our prayer.
We celebrate not just what once happened to Jesus, but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, gifted with the Holy Spirit—the Lord and giver of life. We celebrate our salvation. We celebrate that we are an Easter people and our song is Alleluia.
We celebrate that God has wanted to take hold of our minds and hearts and form them, and if we have allowed Him to do so, even through the mysterious share of His cross, we experience the Easter joy in this Easter season. Because He rose from the dead He was able to take death away from us, and give us life. By dying, He destroyed our spiritual death and conquered our physical death when one day we will share bodily in His resurrection on the last day. By rising, He restored our spiritual life. Adam and Eve lost the gift of God’s life in the garden. Christ would win back life by His own death and gift of baptism.
During the weeks of Lent, Holy Week, and now in Easter, we can thank God for His growth in us. We have grown in love of God. We have grown in charity toward one another. We have grown in kindness and patience with others. We’ve grown in courage to live the faith. Some of us have grown by letting go. The resurrection of Christ has made us capable of receiving the good news of salvation and the consequences of Christ’s life—our salvation.
This is our faith. This is our time. This is our joy. We have found what we have been looking for—Christ Jesus. Through one another, through prayer, through the sacraments and the Eucharist, we will continue to grow in joy and in power to love.
May God bless you, the Easter people, whose song is Alleluia.
